About Me

I'm a Christian, married, father of five, and worked as a high school teacher of English and History for twenty five years. The stress forced me into retirement. I've wanted to write as long as I can remember, because as soon as stories were read to me I wanted to make up my own.Now I can write full time, which I always wanted to do.

Saturday, August 24, 2013

We threw out what we needed.

We threw out what we needed.

Two press reports this year said the same shocking thing about this society: there are thousands and thousands of men who have given up on life. There is an epidemic of hopelessness, men at risk of suicide or chronically cynical because they can't see much good in life. Having reached adulthood, they feel left thinking about life 'there isn't much there'. It explains the shocking problem with substance abuse, alcohol or narcotics, people having to escape their feeling about life, the universe and everything - they can't cope with the sense of emptiness and pointlessness and have to escape it.
So WHO are the people who trashed the idea of spiritual faith, be it Christianity or any other like Judaism? Who are they? Who are these people, wise in their own eyes, who shouted down the idea of believing in God and wanting to live a life connected with Him? They said we didn't need that, we could do it ourselves, and 'religion' was an outdated relic of the superstitious past.
And having denounced it, they have nothing better to replace it with, at all. Their claims are false and hollow, their idea that we can get a life by believing in some political doctrine or making life happen all by ourselves. They say we can live for ourselves, our 'self actualization' and make life what we want. But as they don't like to say: we could die tonight. We do not have such control over what will become of us at all. Those who rejected God set up a cardboard idol to those who were deceived by them, a hollow uselessness instead of the King of the Universe.
For decades so called intellectuals have critisized and tried to abolish religious instruction in schools, tried to undermine the place of the church in human lives, told people that 'God is dead' or 'we don't need that anymore'. They have brought a terrible responsibility on themselves.
The Word says that if anyone prevents another coming nigh to God and knowing Him it would be better for them if a millstone was tied around their neck and they were thrown into the depths of the sea. But that would not save them from the judgement of God.
This society is in a bad state because so many people have rejected the idea of God, and replaced it with the idea that we can all be 'free to enjoy ourselves', or given us idols like political parties, sports clubs, cultural activities, or just plain consumerism and hedonism. This was supposed to make life good. When it turns to ashes and proves to be hollow, what then?
Sport is life for some, but it can't make life worthwhile for ever. Environmentalism is a creed for some, but environmentalists start talking about 'the earth goddess', so they need an idol after all! Political doctrines are some peoples' life, but they falter and let us down sooner or later. Communism has become jaded and discredited to many.
One of the Beatles remarked "I've been to the top and there's not much there." World fame did not make life good after the first flush.
So who rejected God? Who denounced the need for Him in a human's life? How do we now reach those drowning in hopelessness because they find nothing else will do?

1 comment:

Spot on post, Andrew. The void left by removing God is not easily filled. But worse, the absolute common sense end to the idea leads to incredibly selfish behavior which is never fully satiated. And of course, how can anyone pretend there's a reason to give a damn about anything? Who cares how I'm remembered if there's nothing after I die? Why not take when I can, steal when I must and do any damned thing I want to do? To whom must I worship but my own selfish desires, if God does not exist? What sense is there in NOT living this way if I'm willing to deal with the consequences of doing so?

But of course, some of those who choose suicide already thought this way. Others merely can't find a reason to go on because, really, there isn't one without God.